The neighborhood is humble, once conflictive (there are still traces of the turbulence caused by drugs). The Rosales. Behind his prison, now in disuse, dozens of workers wearing yellow vests place the metal poles on which an immigrant settlement will rise. Just ten steps away, stands the new kindergarten that this September 28 was going to unify the students of two others: Our Lady of Africa and Juan Carlos I. More than 170 boys and girls playing a few meters from a camp. "And they're going to be outside, with my daughter. I don't want that."
His name is Neuer Mohammed, he is 26 years old and has two children. The little one, Emira, is not even three years old. She hides her dark curls in her mother's neck, covered with a hijab. "Many parents do not feel safe when they go to work. There are altercations and that is going to happen here too, we are seeing it," he says.
She is one of the mothers who, since yesterday, has been protesting with neighbors and teachers on the three thousand square meter esplanade to stop the installation. "We have tried to stop it by all means and we are not going to be able to avoid it."
Last night, the calling power was not what was expected. Only about twenty residents endured the night hours outdoors. "Look, if there are no streetlights here, there is nothing," says Nawal, 42. He lives in the adjacent buildings, which border the Loma Colmenar neighborhood, where immigrants sleep outdoors or wander aimlessly during the days.
This morning, there were few mothers left contemplating the scene. "I'll only tell you one thing, if something happens to my daughter, I'm going to defend myself," says Noelia. The pigtails of Jimena, her daughter, wave every time the girl bends down to touch the gravel of the esplanade. "I can't take her to another daycare because they have already vacated the other two."
"The problem is not the settlement, they have done that in all locations. The problem is that here they tell you that there is room for 1,500 or 2,000 and many stay outside, hanging around. Those outside are going to live uncontrolled," predicts this neighbor.
The feeling of lack of control is transversal to all the neighbors. Nobody has told them about the operation. The only clue is given by the row of military trucks that unload the material next to the two excavators. Government sources assure that the maneuver is not the work of the central Executive, while the regional Government assures that it is not a center for minors and that, therefore, it is outside its powers.
Although they do not know which people will be referred to this enclave, the neighbors sense that they will be adult men who sleep on the street, given that women and girls already have centers such as La Hípica.
Furthermore, each event that makes the headlines increases their anguish. There are many immigrant minors who have suffered sexual assault. "Whoever tells me that he can't get out of his head and take my daughter," says Noelia. As she sees it, there is only one solution: leave. "My husband told me to leave, but why do I have to leave my city so they can put these people here?"
